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When the Detroit Tigers expressed interest in signing Baltimore Orioles slugger Chris Davis during the offseason, I jokingly nicknamed that hypothetical roster the "Dinger Factory." Turns out, the Tigers might already be there. Detroit homered five times on Wednesday, pummeling the Washington Nationals by an 11-5 score. Ian Kinsler, Miguel Cabrera, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia were among those rounding the bases, and all three have hit multiple dingers this spring.
Not everything went swimmingly, though. Left fielder Justin Upton exited the game early with an ankle injury after nearly colliding with Anthony Gose in the outfield. It does not appear to be serious, though, as Upton may DH on Thursdayagainst the Philadelphia Phillies. The 28-year-old slugger could use a few more at-bats, as he is only 1-for-11 with eight strikeouts so far this spring.
Speaking of injuries, the Tigers are saying some interesting things about center fielder Wynton Bernard, who could potentially fill in for the injured Cameron Maybin to start the season.
"We’ve talked about it," Ausmus said. "No decision has been made, but in the short-term, that’s why we’ve been talking about it — I think it’s something we should consider."
Maybin thinks he will be back on time for Opening Day, but Bernard is an interesting insurance policy. As a relative unknown and the only natural center fielder in contention for Maybin's roster spot, he seems like the obvious choice to head to Miami with the club. It would be interesting to see him spend a couple of weeks with the major league club before Maybin returns to action.
I still don't understand this
Here's some video from a game that was not broadcast on television.
I'm going to pretend these events are related
The Kansas City Royals sent people to spy on Tim Lincecum this week, but were actually turned away when they figured out where he was located. At what I can only assume is a later date, a Royals spring training game was halted by a plague of bees. Apparently, this is a yearly tradition.
I was going to write almost this exact same article and then Hardball Times did it for me
Victor Martinez is a very interesting player because he rarely swings and misses but also hits for power (except in 2015). I made a fancy little graph to illustrate this fact and was going to write an article about it, but then The Hardball Times' Eli Ben-Porat had to one-up me and do a way better job at it. Fair warning: that one gets a little stat-heavy, but it's an interesting read.
Shameless self-promotion in pictorial form
BYB has an Instagram account! You should follow it for more awesome baseball pictures like this.